Do we have any hobby sprinters here?

Once I got in my 40's, I got sick of being a mid pack runner and switched to sprinting. I knew I could get some medals there which I did but it sure hurt. It actually turned out that I was just as quick as high school. I did that for a few years. I was pretty beat up most of the time, injured a lot. You don't need any distance background. You probably need some goals. It's not something you just do. And there's sprinting and then there's sprinting. It sounds like you're interested in the former. Just ease into it but be aware it will hurt as you age, particularly if you're doing the latter.

I hired a sprint coach a couple of years ago and there weren't a lot of sprint repeats involved. It was all strength work, strides, drills and endless options for getting up and down steps. It was fun though, until I got hurt.

High Knees wrote:

I'm getting a little stale in the distance department and was thinking I might take up sprinting this year. Male, early thirties. I could use the speed, anyhow. What's it like to train for sprinting? Do I need an aerobic house or can I start doing 40 and 60 meter repeats like tomorrow?

40 and 60? I am assuming you mean you will be pulling a sled or tire for that distance? I would focus more on 400s, 300s, 200s, 150s, 100s. The closer you get to 100s the more reps. The shorter distances up hills.

You also need to start lifting, Squats, Power Cleans and Dead lifts are you new 3 favorite lifts but not your only lifts.

Distance to sprint? wrote:

High Knees wrote:

I'm getting a little stale in the distance department and was thinking I might take up sprinting this year. Male, early thirties. I could use the speed, anyhow. What's it like to train for sprinting? Do I need an aerobic house or can I start doing 40 and 60 meter repeats like tomorrow?

40 and 60? I am assuming you mean you will be pulling a sled or tire for that distance? I would focus more on 400s, 300s, 200s, 150s, 100s. The closer you get to 100s the more reps. The shorter distances up hills.

You also need to start lifting, Squats, Power Cleans and Dead lifts are you new 3 favorite lifts but not your only lifts.

I thought I'd carry a lasso to the track and snag a few skinny runners and use them as my ballast.

Distance to sprint? wrote:

High Knees wrote:

I'm getting a little stale in the distance department and was thinking I might take up sprinting this year. Male, early thirties. I could use the speed, anyhow. What's it like to train for sprinting? Do I need an aerobic house or can I start doing 40 and 60 meter repeats like tomorrow?

40 and 60? I am assuming you mean you will be pulling a sled or tire for that distance? I would focus more on 400s, 300s, 200s, 150s, 100s. The closer you get to 100s the more reps. The shorter distances up hills.

You also need to start lifting, Squats, Power Cleans and Dead lifts are you new 3 favorite lifts but not your only lifts.

Unless you're doing extensive tempo you probably shouldn't do more than 2-3 100m sprints at near max effort. Sprinting is more about CNS stress than distance running. The only sprinter I know who did a massive amount of relatively intense repetitions was Mennea and I don't think that system has worked for anyone else

Distance to sprint? wrote:

High Knees wrote:

I'm getting a little stale in the distance department and was thinking I might take up sprinting this year. Male, early thirties. I could use the speed, anyhow. What's it like to train for sprinting? Do I need an aerobic house or can I start doing 40 and 60 meter repeats like tomorrow?

40 and 60? I am assuming you mean you will be pulling a sled or tire for that distance? I would focus more on 400s, 300s, 200s, 150s, 100s.

I'm sure you mean well but this is bad advice coming from someone who clearly doesn't understand sprint training. The intervals you listed are better suited to an 800 runner than a sprinter. That's just not how you get fast at 100 & 200, and not many 400 athletes would train that way either.

That said, sleds, hills and lifts are great.

Extensive tempo is not even close to max effort and is longer than 100m.

Short to long is the way to go. Start with 15-30m at 95% with 3+mins rest between. Total distance worked at 180-400m, start on the low end. Do this 2 days a week. Throw in some speed endurance on another day, 80-150m @ 95% with 2-4 mins between and total work distance of 200-1200m. Lastly, a day of intensive tempo with 10x100m @ 80% with 45-60 seconds between.

Expect to gain weight.

Mondays - 100s-200s (2' recovery)

Tuesdsays - Sprint floats, drills, plyos

Wednesday - 300s-500s (6'-10' recovery)

Thursday - Medballs, blocks, nervous system

Friday - sets of 60-100 hills with jog down recovery

Saturday - 30 minute run or off

Sunday - 20 minute run + strides or off

M/W Weights - Press, clean, squat, lunge, step-ups, ham curls, abs

T/Th Weights - Biceps, triceps, shoulders, calves

Flo'da boy wrote:

Distance to sprint? wrote:

40 and 60? I am assuming you mean you will be pulling a sled or tire for that distance? I would focus more on 400s, 300s, 200s, 150s, 100s. The closer you get to 100s the more reps. The shorter distances up hills.

You also need to start lifting, Squats, Power Cleans and Dead lifts are you new 3 favorite lifts but not your only lifts.

Unless you're doing extensive tempo you probably shouldn't do more than 2-3 100m sprints at near max effort. Sprinting is more about CNS stress than distance running. The only sprinter I know who did a massive amount of relatively intense repetitions was Mennea and I don't think that system has worked for anyone else

Became inspired and went on the track after work. Warmed up for 1 mile then sprinted 100m in 14.19, jogged the rest of the lap, another 100 in 14.69, jogged and walked, 17.23 (dropped, kicked and tangled in iPod and headphones), walked back the start, no jogging and then 13.76. Cool down for half a mile.

This was my first time trying the 100.

Should I give up hobby sprinting or keep it up?

Give it a shot of you're having fun, hell you're better than me

And I misspoke earlier, I just meant that large volumes of 100s should only be done at tempo paces and if you're attempting to go near max effort you should only do 2-3 with long recoveries (I think the recovery gets longer the faster you get as it becomes more stressful)

Distance to sprint? wrote:

I would focus more on 400s, 300s, 200s, 150s, 100s. The closer you get to 100s the more reps. The shorter distances up hills.

Absolutely not.

We need Bizzaro World, complete opposite entities of current distance regulars, for LetsSprint.com.

Like a jamin who sprints, lives in FL, doesn't complain, and gets laid.

Wasn't there a douche here who claimed he was the fastest at 200 lbs? He had videos too. That might be antijamin

I'm Bizarro Stormy

I'm regular Stormy

I started "hobby sprinting" in part because I was having pain in my back and Achilles that, while a problem over longer distances, were manageable or nonexistent while sprinting or during shorter intervals. (The other reason is that I'm still a middle distance runner at heart and my long term goal is to run a good 800m, and since raw speed has always been my limiting factor I wanted to attack it).

One thing this foray has really taught me is how to accept recovery. While distance running I was constantly worried that every moment not spent running was draining my fitness and often, when I shod have been recovering and not worried, I would muscle through a run (of course sometimes this must be done but we all know distance runners are loathe to to breaks). When sprinting, it is nearly impossible to muscle through a workout as your CNS is often the limiting factor, and you learn to take recovery more seriously and, simultaneously, worry less about that time you really need to recover.

Because of this I've actually had fewer injustices and less pain

One word of warning: progress may be extremely slow. Hopefully you're more inclined to this kind of work than i am, but don't excpect to se huge time drops. It's something you have to chip away at